Entertaining: Super Bowl Party & Coaster Freebie

As a child, I was never all that into sports. When football or hockey games were on in my house, I often tuned them out and went back to playing with my toys or reading Goosebumps. In high school, I was always picked last for teams — quite understandably since, once drafted, I hardly made any effort to participate or even know what on earth was going on. When it came to the Super Bowl, that great American tradition, I couldn’t have cared less. I just couldn’t wrap my head around a game that involved burly guys in leotards sprinting back and forth with a ball. It was fast, confusing and full of indecipherable jargon. “Whatsisname just scored a touchdown!” Great— what’s a touchdown?

Although I never really cared for the Super Bowl when I was younger, I’ve warmed up to it considerably in recent years. Perhaps it’s because I was tired of turning down invites to sports-related events. Or perhaps I realized what a wonderful occasion it is for family bonding. Maybe it was because I realized that the Super Bowl doesn’t have just football — it also has a fabulous halftime show and wildly overproduced television ads! Mostly, though, I think it’s because I love any excuse to throw a party. And Super Bowl parties are great! It’s really one of the few social occasions of the year where reclining chairs, beer cozies and fried chicken are acceptable — even expected! At a Super Bowl party, you can ditch all the standard entertaining etiquette and live it up with some of the best treats in town!

After the jump, you will find some surefire ways to liven up your Super Bowl festivities (did I mention there are printable coasters??), even for those of you who aren’t particularly sports-inclined. Nobody on the Design*Sponge team even knew when the Super Bowl was a few weeks ago (it’s on February 3rd), and now we’re beyond amped for the big day. Bring it on, Ravens, 49ers and Beyoncé! We’re ready for ya! Whom will you be rooting for? GO TEAM! SCORE! TOUCHDOWN! — Max

Top image: It’s the Design*Sponge cheerleading squad! We turned regular gray sweatshirts into jerseys by stenciling numbers on them with printed card stock and acrylic paint. For the letters, we used the free Letter Sweater typeface. We created a football field-style backdrop using some craft paper, white paint and number stencils cut from standard card stock.

More Super Bowl entertaining after the jump . . .

Coaster image above: We spruced up our game day coffee table with some cute football term coasters illustrated by the talented gals at Fawnsberg. Simply print on white card stock and cut them out with scissors or a circle cutter! Download the PDF here.

Above image: Chicken wings are one of my all-time favorite snacks and are perfect for a Super Bowl party. While there are hundreds of chicken wing recipes and sauces out there, I usually stick with a tried and true classic — Frank’s Red Hot!

Above image: Scoreboards are a great way to get involved with the game. Amy plans on keeping us up-to-date with a scoreboard written on our chalkboard wall!

You guys are ridiculously adorable. I love how you’re getting in front of the camera more. The coasters are so cute. I also couldn’t care less about the game but I love an excuse to par-tay, make fun of the commercials, & yell incoherently.

Love this post! Love this site! Love sports! We are hosting and, as we have in the past, are doing foods from each city. Garlic/parm fries and our version of rice-a-roni for San Fran; crabcakes for Baltimore. And they are playing in New Orleans this year which gives us even more options! How about crab gumbo in a sourdough bowl!?

Design*Sponge reserves the right to restrict comments that do not contribute constructively to the conversation at hand, that comment on people's physical appearance, contain profanity, personal attacks, hate speech or seek to promote a personal or unrelated business. Our goal is to create a safe space where everyone (commenters, subjects of posts and moderators) feels comfortable to speak. Please treat others the way you would like to be treated and be willing to take responsibility for the impact your words may have on others. Disagreement, differences of opinion and heated discussion are welcome, but comments that do not seek to have a mature and constructive dialogue will not be published. We moderate all comments with great care and do not delete any lightly. Please note that our team (writers, moderators and guests) deserve the same right to speak and respond as you do, and your comments may be responded to or disagreed with. These guidelines help us maintain a safe space and work toward our goal of connecting with and learning from each other.